BY ADAM ASHTON, The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n
(EXCERPT)<\/p>\n
In three years, California\u2019s largest utilities could be slashing their use of fossil fuels by swapping homegrown solar energy for Rocky Mountain wind power in a sprawling Western electricity grid.<\/p>\n
Or a newly expanded grid could provide a profitable market to revive out-of-state coal plants that would otherwise face a harder time complying with California\u2019s aggressive greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts.<\/p>\n
Those contrasting scenarios are driving debate as the state\u2019s energy and air-quality regulators finish studies on a proposal to merge the grid for California\u2019s biggest power companies \u2013 Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison \u2013 with another\u00a0privately run entity\u00a0<\/a>that serves 1.8 million customers across the West. The combined grid would serve about 32 million customers.<\/p>\n California lawmakers set the stage for the merger last year when they passed SB 350, the law that calls for utilities to generate\u00a0half of their power from renewable sources by 2030<\/a>.<\/p>\n This month, lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown could decide whether to commit to linking California\u2019s main grid, known as the\u00a0Independent System Operator<\/a>, with one managed in six states by\u00a0PacifiCorp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a look at what\u2019s motivating the proposal and some of the questions that are leading smaller utilities to ask the Brown administration to slow down the merger.<\/p>\n